What if Caged Heat
by Katy M VT
Summary: What if Samuel sold his soul for Mary?  Spoilers through Caged Heat.  Chapter 3 of 3 up. Out of order, but I was inspired.
1. Crossroads

What if Samuel sold his soul for Mary?

Samuel approached the crossroads. Since Crowley was dead, he was going to have to do this the old-fashioned way. He buried the box with the requisite items and waited patiently. Finally, a woman in a black dress showed.

She flashed her red eyes at him and said, "Samuel Campbell, already know you're going to Heaven and you're willing to sell your soul?"

"Yes. Bring my daughter back and I get ten years with her."

The demon considered. It had been a long time, but this man had exorcised hundreds of her kind. "OK," she said and pulled him into a kiss. Then she disappeared.

Mary suddenly appeared laying down in the road in front of him. This wasn't the young daughter that he remembered. This woman was older. She looked up at him and opened her eyes. "Dad?" The last thing she remembered was being in this place they called Purgatory with monsters and the ghosts of those who had tainted their souls badly enough to exclude them from Heaven, but not damn them to Hell. It was a lie that you could work your way into Heaven, though. Purgatory was just as permanent as either of those places.

"Mary, is that you?" He wasn't sure. She had changed a lot since the time he died.

"Where are we?" she asked looking around. She knew for a fact that she hadn't moved on to Heaven. This looked a lot like earth.

"Indiana," he answered.

Well, that was definitely part of earth last she checked. "How did I get here? How did you get here?" She remembered her father died about 10 years before she did.

"Long story. Let's go home."

"Home? Is Mom back, too?"

"No," Samuel said. He regretted only having one soul to sell.

They got in his car and started driving back to the compound. "How are we here?" Mary asked again.

"A demon pulled me out of Heaven and I sold my soul to bring you back," Samuel admitted. In his experience, it was impossible to keep a secret like that anyway.

SSS

"Sam, don't walk away," Dean called after Sam. He had to convince him that he wanted his soul back. He just had to.

"There's no point, Dean. We want different things and we can't trust each other. You're afraid of me like this, and I'm afraid you'll try to lock me in the panic room."

"OK. But we have to do one last thing together. It wouldn't feel right to not do it," Dean said, trying to stall for time.

"What?" Sam asked. He had a feeling Dean was just trying to stall, but he couldn't imagine what he was talking about.

"Samuel. He betrayed us like nobody's business. We need to take care of him," Dean said. He knew that it wasn't Samuel's fault that Sam didn't have a soul. It wasn't his fault that Sam didn't want his soul, but the man had handed them over to demons without a second thought or regret.

"You want to kill our grandfather?" Sam asked, surprised. He kind of wanted to, but he couldn't believe Dean did, too. The last time he'd tried to kill the man, Dean had stopped him.

"You were right before. He betrayed us. And it's worse because he's family. I expect a demon to betray us. I expect vampires to try to eat us. I don't expect grandfathers to sell us out."

Sam shrugged. "Let's go. " To be honest, he was starting to care about Dean. Tonight in the compound, when the demons had taken him away, he had actually been worried about him. Had realized that he would miss him if he died.

SSS

"What is this place?" Mary asked.

"Hunting compound," Samuel answered. "It's pure iron lined with salt and silver. Monster proof."

"That's cool. What year is it?" Mary asked. She knew it was after 2005 because that was when she had chased that poltergeist out of her house. She had been sitting in that house for 22 years, just silently watching the inhabitant come and go, wondering what had happened to her sons. Then one day, a poltergeist had moved in. Shortly thereafter, a single mother with two young children. She had vowed to protect them.

She had never imagined in her wildest dreams that her sons would show up. Two boys—no, young men—had shown up on the doorstep and introduced themselves as Sam and Dean Winchester. Those were her sons. She could feel that it was true, too.

She was dismayed to find out they were hunters. They had to be, that was why they came. She had no idea how that had happened. She could feel the psychic energy coming off of him and wondered if that yellow-eyed demon had something to do with that. The boys tried to purge the house of the poltergeist and her. Of course they didn't know it was her. It hadn't worked, though. She sacrificed herself to get rid of the poltergeist and they both ended up in Purgatory, until now.

"It's 2010," Samuel answered.

Mary nodded. She wondered if her boys were still alive. Hunting was dangerous work. "Do you know where my sons are?" she asked. "I had two sons. I named them after you and mom. Sam and Dean."

"I know. I've met them."

"What did you do?" Dean asked, coming in to the room.

"What are you doing here?" Samuel asked.


	2. Soul to Soul

"Dean," Mary said, recognizing him from Lawrence. "Sam?" She hadn't remembered his eyes being so cold. Granted, she hadn't seen him for long in that house, but he had seemed like a sweet caring boy. This man in front of her looked like he would kill you as soon as look at you.

"Mom," Dean said and hugged her. He had missed her his whole life. He only had a few memories of her, but he fed off of them and nurtured them.

"Dean," Mary said again. "How did you become a hunter? I never wanted that for you."

"I know," Dean said. Dad found out a demon killed you and became a hunter to get revenge. He brought us up in the life.

"I thought we were going to kill the old man," Sam said, impatiently. That was Dean's problem. He always got too emotional and wrapped up in the jobs.

Mary shuddered. "Your grandfather? You were going to kill your grandfather? Why?"

"Didn't he tell you what he's been up to?" Dean asked.

"No," Mary frowned. She couldn't imagine what he could possibly have done to make his grandsons want to murder him.

"A demon brought him back to life and had him work with him to bring you back. He was capturing creatures for him so that they could tell where Purgatory was. This same demon told us he could get us Sam's soul back, but he was lying. Before we found out he was lying, though, we decided to track him down and make him give us the soul. Samuel didn't want us to do that because then you wouldn't be able to come back. So, _Grandpa_ handed us over to the demons."

"Is that true?" Mary asked Samuel, horrified. How could he do that? These were her sons, although Sam was pretty scary. "Wait, what do you mean get Sam his soul back?"

"Sam's soul is in Hell," Dean said. "Long story, but he's just not the same without it."

"I don't want it back, though," Sam interjected. He pulled out a gun. He was going to do what he came to do.

"No!" Mary yelled. In a way, she wanted to kill him herself for what he had done. But he was her father, and she loved him. "Let's just go. Sam, please."

Sam hesitated. He didn't care what his mother wanted him to do or not do, but he was beginning to have second thoughts. Samuel was a hell of a hunter and knew lots that he didn't. He might come in handy in the future.

"Fine," he said and put his gun away.

"Let's go," Mary said.

The three of them walked out, leaving Samuel alone once more. He had sold his soul for nothing. He was still without Mary. She wanted nothing to do with him.

SSS

"Well, good-bye," Sam said when they got outside. Normally he would have just walked away, but for some reason figured his mother deserved a good-bye.

"Where are you going?" she asked. She had just come back from the dead. Didn't her son want to spend some time with her?"

Dean looked away. This was hard to watch. It was bad enough for him, but he couldn't imagine a mother seeing her son with no soul, no emotions.

"Dean and I have come to an impasse. We're going our separate ways."

"Well, wait a minute," Mary said and walked up to him and gave him a hug. She grabbed on to him tightly. She noticed that he wasn't hugging her back, but that wasn't going to stop her. She cried. She remembered him as a baby. She couldn't believe this is what he had become.

The ground began to rumble. Mary didn't notice. She just kept hugging Sam. Finally, the ground stopped shaking and Sam started.

"What's going on?" Dean asked.

Castiel appeared behind him. "Your brother's soul is back."

"How? How do you know?"

"I just know. I think your mother's love brought it back. The original owner of your soul is your mother. She has a deep bond with and she has the power to bring it back."

Sam collapsed to the ground. Mary sat down next to him and Dean rushed over. "Sammy?" he asked. Please let it be Sammy.

Sam slowly opened his eyes and screamed. Dean recognized that scream. He had heard it every day and night for forty years while he was in Hell. There was no earthly sound like it.

"Shh, baby, it's OK," Mary soothed. But Dean knew it wasn't. He hadn't been through half of what Sam had, but he knew it was bad.

Castiel leaned down and touched Sam knocking him out. "It will be better if he sleeps for a while. May I transport you to Bobby's?" he asked, remembering that Dean liked warning and to give permission for such things.

Dean nodded. He hated traveling angel style, but for Sam he would do it. Two seconds later they were all in front of a stunned Bobby.

"What in the hell?" he asked.

"Sam got his soul back," Dean said.

"You don't seem to happy?" Bobby observed.

"It's damaged," Castiel said.

"Who is this?" Bobby asked, indicating Mary.

"Our mother. She's the one who got the soul back."

Sam was still sleeping but he started screaming again. "Maybe we should wake him up," Dean said. Since he was going to be in pain either way, maybe he could work through it faster awake.

"His body hasn't slept in a year. He needs rest if he is going to combat this. I can take his dreams away for now," Castiel said and touched Sam. Sam immediately stilled.

"How can we help him?" Mary asked. It pained her to see her son in so much pain.

"I have no idea. I told Dean that this may happen and that I would not be able to fix it."

"I suggest we all get some sleep. We're going to have a long day tomorrow," Bobby said.


	3. Shattered Pieces

Castiel stayed up all night since he didn't sleep anyway. The others didn't get much sleep, either. They were all worried about what the day would bring. They were sitting around staring at Sam when he woke up.

He skittered back on the couch. "What's going on?" he whispered. He never did anything more than scream in a whisper lately.

He was confused. He remembered being in Hell this last century, but he also remembered being on earth for a year. He had a vague memory of being told he had no soul and that it was still in Hell. He realized that must be what happened. Why he had two sets of memories. He had literally been two places at once. He shuddered.

"Sammy? Are you OK?" Dean asked.

"No," Sam said. He had been tortured mercilessly by Michael and Lucifer and Adam. They had thought it would be fun if Adam joined them against Sam. After a couple of years, Adam had become much more adept than either of the angels. That boy radiated pure hatred.

He also realized he had done some horrible things himself. He had let Dean turn into a vampire. He had tried to kill their grandfather, although he was pretty sure he had deserved it. He had taken Dean away from the family he had so badly wanted. He started crying. He couldn't figure out which was worse. His torture in Hell or his conduct on earth?

"It's OK," Mary said and sat next to him and cradled him in her arms.

He didn't deserve his mother's comfort. He had been responsible for her death. The demon had been after him and she had only got in the way. He looked up at Bobby and Cas. He remembered having killed them before he jumped in the pit.

He just started crying harder. This was all too much. Dean crouched down beside him. He wanted to hold him and give him comfort, but didn't want to take him away from their mother. "Sammy, it's OK." He wasn't sure exactly what Sam was crying about, but he knew there were a million reasons. He just hoped it wasn't all of them at once.

"It's over now," his mother crooned.

Bobby wasn't sure what he should do. He had always felt like the boys' father, but with their mother here, he wasn't sure if his presence was superfluous.

"I need to get back to Heaven," Castiel said. Sam was doing much better than he had anticipated. There wasn't really anything he could do here, and he was needed upstairs.

"Fine," Dean said, knowing that Cas had sacrificed quite a bit to help them in the first place.

Castiel disappeared to sound of fluttering wings. The sound made Sam shudder. Lucifer and Michael retained their wings in Hell. Michael and Lucifer were huge. Ten times his size. They would sometimes wrap their wings around him to smother him. He had died the first time they had done that and his soul had come free of his body. But, they kept doing it to him after. He couldn't die again, but he felt like he could die.

When his mother pulled him tighter in response to the shudder, Sam threw her off. He felt stifled. He jumped up and ran out of the house.

"Sam!" Dean yelled and ran off after him.

"Are you OK?" Bobby asked, helping Mary up off of the floor.

"Yes. Do you think he'll be alright?" Mary asked.

Bobby was going to reassure her with meaningless words, but one look at her told him she was too smart for that. "I don't know," he answered honestly. "I hope so."

"Sam," Dean caught up to Sam at the end of the driveway. Sam's body was strong, but his soul was tired and weak.

"I'm sorry, Dean."

"For what?" Dean asked. He didn't know if Sam had had to do horrible things in the pit.

"For letting you get turned into a vampire. For taking you away from Ben and Lisa." Sam refused to look at Dean. His soul had been yearning for Dean to help him the past century, but his mind had been hurting Dean and seen the look of disgust and contempt in Dean's eyes. Dean didn't love him anymore and Sam didn't blame him.

"That wasn't you, Sammy," Dean assured him.

"Yes it was. Who else was it, if it wasn't me?"

"It was you, but it wasn't all of you. A whole is more than the sum of its parts," Dean said, remembering something Sam had been excited about while studying something geeky in school.

Sam didn't respond to that. He was a terrible, horrible, awful person. There was no getting around that.

Dean had a burning question, but at the same time he didn't want to upset Sam. "So, um, is Adam OK?" he asked.

Sam snorted. "I hate Adam."

Dean was taken aback by that. Adam was their brother. "Why?"

"Michael and Lucifer let him torture me. And he didn't hold back any."

Dean couldn't judge Adam for that. He had tortured in Hell, too. But, he also couldn't blame Sam for hating him. He hated everyone who tortured him. Alistair had let a couple of humans have a crack at him, too. He had let all the psychic kids have a go at him—Ava, Max, Anson, Jake. For such a small thing, Ava packed quite a wallop.

"Let's go back inside," Dean suggested.

"I kind of want to be out in the open," Sam said,

Dean understood that, too. Hell was confining. He couldn't imagine how confining a cage inside Hell was. "I'll sit out here with you."

"Why?"

"What do you mean?" Dean asked, thinking Sam didn't want him around.

"Why would you want to be anywhere near me? I know you hate me. I've seen the look in your eye and heard your tone of voice around me the last few months."

"Sam, I wanted your soul back. You weren't the same without it. But even if we had never gotten it back, I would have still loved what's left of you. Robo-Sam wasn't all bad."

Sam smiled a little smile. That felt weird. "Robo-Sam, huh? That would be cool if I had all that armor."

"Totally," Dean agreed, glad that he had his little brother back at last.

"Dean, how did mom get back?" Sam asked.

"Samuel did something."

"What?"

"He sold his soul," Mary said as she approached from the house. "I wanted to make sure my boys were OK."

"I'm sorry, Mom."

"About my father?"

"No, for getting you killed."

"You didn't get me killed. I sold you to a demon. But I swear I didn't mean to." She took a deep breath so she could tell them the whole story.

"That's OK, Mom. We know all about it. An angel sent me back in time and I saw you make the deal to bring Dad back," Dean said.

"That time is kind of fuzzy in my mind. Parts of it I remember, but then it's like there are holes and I feel like someone else was around, I just don't know who."

"That was me. Another angel wiped me from your memory," Dean said.

"So, what now?" Mary asked.

"Now, if Bobby will let us, we stay here as long as Sam needs to."

Sam started to cry again. "What's wrong?" Dean asked. He realized this was going to be a long road.

"I killed Bobby. He won't want me to stay here."

"Well, that definitely wasn't you. That was Lucifer," Dean said firmly. "Bobby wants you here," Dean took the liberty of saying. He was pretty sure he was safe in doing so.

"Lucifer?" Mary asked.

"Long story," Dean said. Now was not the time to tell their mother how Sam was possessed by the devil. Not in front of Sam. "Let's just leave it at that Sam saved the world. You did, Sam," he reiterated.

Sam thought about it. Maybe he had started everything, but he had finished it, too. He nodded and headed back to the house with his mother and brother. Maybe everything would be OK after all.

The End


End file.
